Ohio Senate considers House version of energy overhaul

By Nick Evans
Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio state senators took up the House version of a broad-based energy bill Tuesday aimed at encouraging new power generation. Backers warn the regional energy grid known as PJM is teetering on the verge of shortfall. Forecasts suggest energy demands could outpace supply as soon as next year.

With those alarms ringing in their ears, lawmakers in the House and Senate have been advancing bills on parallel tracks. Both chambers approved their proposals in recent weeks with broad bipartisan support.

But Tuesday’s hearing wasn’t the beginning of a fast-track process. Senators cancelled a follow up hearing scheduled for Wednesday and they’re preparing to leave town on a two-week recess. In the House, meanwhile, attention is focused squarely on the budget.

Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, who heads up the Senate energy committee explained they haven’t yet settled on which bill will be the vehicle for passage.

“We haven’t figured that out yet. The House is focused on the budget right now,” Chavez said after committee.

“I think we’ll pick one and we’ll just go with it,” he added, “and we’ll blend them together and hopefully come up with a really solid bill.”

There’s agreement on the broad strokes, but with lawmakers headed for the exits, hammering out the details might stretch into May. And despite wrestling over language for months, lawmakers and stakeholders have a few additional tweaks in mind.

What’s distinct about HB 15
Both proposals encourage new power plant investment with tax incentives and assurances that monopoly distribution companies (think AEP, Duke or FirstEnergy) can’t jump into the marketplace. They also shake up how those distribution companies set rates, and repealing a widely criticized subsidy for aging coal plants.

But HB 15 carries a handful of additional provisions. Utilities would have to create “heat maps” reflecting energy capacity on quarterly basis. The state power siting board would gain oversight of transmission projects that currently have little. Critics argue that allows companies to make big investments and pass the cost on to ratepayers. The House bill also includes a pilot program for community power where small groups could chip in on new power generation to defray their existing power bills.

The Senate bill includes a program loaning schools money for solar from an existing fund.  The House instead would eliminate it and refund the balance to consumers.

Ideas
Senators sitting on the Energy committee heard another round of the suggestions they’ve heard before. AEP Ohio’s Steve Nourse asked lawmakers for a “glide path” off the coal plant subsidies. Those subsidies are the result of 2019’s House Bill 6 which is at the center of the largest corruption case in Ohio’s history. Consumers have already spent close to half a billion dollars on propping up the plants.

Utilities, barred from any role in energy production under HB 15, urged lawmakers to let them get involved “behind the meter” — providing on-site power plants for big customers like data centers.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis suggested lawmakers should remove or revise a section in the bill about customer refunds.

“It may have the unintended effect of prohibiting a refund opportunity that currently exists for consumers,” she argued.

The bill allows customers to collect refunds from the date of an Ohio Supreme Court decision rather than the date when charges began. Her office is pursuing refunds right now on behalf of half a million Ohioans who get their power from AES, the company that used to be Dayton Power and Light.

House Bill 15 gives the Public Utility Commission of Ohio a “shot clock” for many of its ratemaking decisions. State Sen. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, asked about adding one for an annual revision process. The House sponsor, Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, said he’s willing to consider it. But after the hearing, Chavez said “I don’t know why the PUCO wouldn’t be diligent about it.”

“We’re trying to let everyone do their job without putting too many restrictions on them,” he added, “because everyone wants to do the right thing. So, it’s something that we’ll talk about.”

Chavez acknowledged he scheduled two hearings in case negotiations moved quickly, and they wanted to get the bill to the Senate floor Wednesday. “We prepared for the possibility,” he said. The Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, added, “Some of it is we want to have conversations with the House.”

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